the ladies who power lunch at downton abbey

Downton Abbey manages to pack a lot into one episode, bringing up controversial issues (like former chauffeur, now son-in-law Branson wanting to baptise little Sybil as Catholic), somewhat resolving the Countess's (Elizabeth McGovern) and her husband the Earl's (Hugh Bonneville) estrangement over their daughter Sybil's death last week in childbirth due to the brilliant machinations of the Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith), and finally putting an end to the storyline that was dragging on and on — Mr. Bates (Brendan Coyle) in prison. Thankfully next week will see him return to Downton and an end to that bore of a subplot.

The Earl interrupts lunch, and is not welcome

But again, one of the most powerful threads of last night's episode centered around the former prostitute and now cook/housekeeper to Mrs. Isobel Crawley (Penelope Wilton), Ethel (Amy Nuttall). Mrs. Crawley, like everyone else, was concerned about how hard Lady Grantham, Cora, was taking the death of her youngest daughter, and wanted to do something, anything, to bring her out of herself. She planned a luncheon for Cora and her daughters, to which the Dowager Countess tagged along ("Am I one of the girls?")

Ethel is admittedly not a whiz in the kitchen, so Mrs. Crawley asked her to keep things simple. But Ethel wanted to do something nice for her former and current employers and enlisted the help of Downton cook Mrs. Patmore (Lesley Nicol) to make some decent food. This of course caused a scandal in he eyes of head butler Mr. Carson (Jim Carter), who had forbidden everyone at Downton from having any contact with Crawley House and its fallen woman. He ran and told Lord Grantham, Robert, about the scandalous luncheon and Robert hightailed it to Crawley House to "rescue" his ladies. He was promptly ignored, especially when Ethel brought out a delicious dessert. Cora still being angry at her husband certainly helped, as she brought up more than once in the episode how Lord Grantham's old-fashioned views were holding everyone back (Edith taking a job writing for the paper, last week's choice of a Harley Street doctor and subsequent inaction which may have led to Sybil's death) — sometimes with disastrous consequences.

Ethel, that dessert does look delicious

With his son-in-law Matthew (Dan Stevens) determined to drag the management of Downton into modern times, and his other son-in-law (Allen Leech) about to baptise his daughter in the "pagan" religion of Catholicism, the Earl is clearly out of touch. His mother may share many of his views, but she is wise enough and has lived long enough to know when to give way. She also knows that sometimes bending the truth a little may help everyone in the long run, as she so brilliantly exhibited when asking Doctor Clarkson (David Robb) to tell Lord and Lady Grantham how slim Sybil's chances of surviving birth were, regardless of whether a Caesarian section had been performed or not — so they could finally come together to grieve.

Hugh Bonneville is doing a masterful job portraying his befuddlement at how the balance of power has somehow shifted inexorably away from him when he wasn't looking. It will be interesting to see if he continues to stubbornly refuse to go with the flow and becomes a fossil, or if he, like his middle daughter Edith, will find "something to do." As Mr. Mason (Paul Copley) pointed out to assistant cook Daisy (Sophie McShera) — does she really think she'll be in service the rest of her life? Or that old houses like Downton will still be operating in the same fashion in the next forty years? Downton's world is changing, and rapidly.

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well, that was unexpected ...

I haven't been able to use the USB ports on my laptop for a while. It's been quite annoying, actually. I finally decided to do something about it yesterday and packed it up with a flash drive and went to my favorite computer store, The Mac Toy Store, which fixes out-of-warranty Apple products and also refurbishes and sells them.

It at first sounded like my beloved 13" MacBook Pro might just have a software problem, but after several tries and a look under the hood it turned out to be the worse possible outcome — a fried motherboard that would cost $800 new or $600 used. My 2009 computer, however, was worth at least $300 as a trade-in. You can probably see where this post is going.

A little later, after a swapped hard drive, I am happily typing away on my "new" 15" MacBook Pro.

Everything old is new again

I was pretty sad to bid goodbye to my 13" laptop, but the store owner and Mac guru assured me that it would live on in other computers. He also threw in a free silicone keyboard cover and soft carrying case for the 15" laptop to help soften the blow. All in all, not a bad deal at all, but not how I thought the day, or the transaction, would end.

my little champ

The school spelling bee was yesterday. The kid did very well, going up against fellow third graders and even fourth and fifth graders.

My little contender, #10, waiting for the bee to begin

She breezed through three or four rounds, spelling words like "weakness" and "quirky." I was impressed. Soon the crowd of spellers had thinned.

Just a few kids left on stage

A fifth grade girl ended up being the winner and will go on to the county spelling bee. My little one missed out on the word "proposition," but found out after school that even not winning can be sweet. I told her how proud I was, and there was always next year. Spelling Bee - the sequel!

Celebrating with ice cream and gummy bears

tommy and tuppence are a blast from the past

Article first published as DVD Review: Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime: The Tommy & Tuppence Mysteries on Blogcritics.

This week sees Acorn Media's release of Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime: The Tommy & Tuppence Mysteries. Originally aired on television in 1983, the series was based on Agatha Christie's "other detectives" — 1920s-era Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. The DVD set includes all 11 mysteries from the series on three discs, with a approximate total running time of over 620 minutes.

The first mystery on the DVD is The Secret Adversary, a feature-length film which introduces sleuths and adventurers Tommy (James Warwick, Lillie, Bergerac) and Prudence 'Tuppence' Cowley (Francesca Annis, Lillie, Cranford). The always stylish and clever Tuppence and the ready-for-anything Tommy team up to solve a series of mysteries, all of which keep leading them inevitably to a formidable adversary - the mysterious Mr. Brown. As Tommy and Tuppence grow closer, Tuppence also considers a marriage proposal from their friend Julius (Gavan O'Herlihy). Also appearing are Honor Blackman, George Baker, and Reece Dinsdale as Albert.

Francesca Annis as Tuppence and James Warwick as Tommy

The Secret Adversary introduced Tommy and Tuppence to 1980s television audiences and was quickly followed by the Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime series. In Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime, Tommy and Tuppence are now married, and together run the Blunt Detective Agency. The fun-loving duo solve a variety of cases, sometimes adopting the mannerisms of other well-known detectives, such as Sherlock Holmes. The episodes, which all run around 50 minutes in length, include:

"The Affair of the Pink Pearl" - A bored Tommy and Tuppence take on the first case for the Blunt Detective Agency when they try to find a stolen pearl. Graham Crowden and Charles Shaughnessy costar. 

"The House of Lurking Death" - A poisoned box of chocolates is the pair's first clue in what may be a series of murders. 

"The Sunningdale Mystery" - Tommy and Tuppence must solve the murder of a man on a golf course. 

"The Clergyman's Daughter" - A Christie staple, an English country house mystery, serves as the backdrop for this episode, but with a twist — the house may be haunted. 

"Finessing the King" - Tommy and Tuppence attend a ball in costume as Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, and find a murdered woman among the guests. 

"The Ambassador's Boots" - A seemingly innocent bag swap leads to a much deeper mystery. 

"The Man in the Mist" - The murder at a posh hotel of a well-known actress keeps the pair busy. 

"The Unbreakable Alibi" - Can Tommy and Tuppence help a young man marry the girl of his dreams (by breaking her alibi)? 

"The Case of the Missing Lady" - Tommy and Tuppence search for a polar explorer's missing fiancee — has the girl been kidnapped? 

"The Crackler" - The pair aid Scotland Yard in cracking a band of counterfeiters.

The DVD presents all of the episodes in the original order in which they were aired. SDH subtitles are available and the image is 4:3 fullscreen. The series does have a more "filmed in studio" look to it than the film The Secret Adversary. Acorn includes a disclaimer: "Due to the age of these programs and the improved resolution that DVD provides, you may notice occasional flaws in the image or audio on this DVD presentation that were beyond our ability to correct from the original materials." The image is certainly not as crystal-clear as we may have become accustomed to in this age of high-definition television, but the series does still look good on a large-scale HD television screen. The period details, sparkling and humorous dialogue, fabulous costumes, and stellar acting make Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime: The Tommy & Tuppence Mysteries a very enjoyable viewing experience.